Watching the Stars Fall Silent
by Mogatrat
Summary: She watched Malachor die. She felt the Force leaving her, and felt nothing but relief. A brief one-shot depicting the end of the Mandalorian Wars, and the beginning of exile.
"General Tekal, they're in position."

Kayrn stared out of the bridge viewscreen, at the flashes of light that surrounded Malachor V. The battle raged in orbit around the lush green planet. Monitors surrounding her on all sides showed the Republic's fleet burning. They'd sent out the oldest ships, staffed them with skeleton crews. Minimal losses.

"General, our ship is in scanner range, and the energy signatures of the Generator are going to show up soon," the quiet voice urged. "If we don't use it..."

The Mandalorians would escape this, and the war would continue. Raven had planned it all very carefully. There could be no turning back.

She looked to the soft voice that had spoken to her, a young Iridonian man, looking at her like she was a sun. She took a moment to absorb his features, the way his horns scattered across his head. Bao-Dur, that was his name. She saw fear and apprehension rising off of him in black waves through the Force, their aura mixed with the red of old anger. Hatred. How many times had she overlooked him when Raven spoke to him? How often had she felt his emotions without realizing it?

She could feel the same emotions, magnified a hundredfold, out there in the black. Bursts of bright white as pain took hold. Red rage blooming in the heat of battle. Here and there, an echo of Raven's aural perception of the Force, through the link they shared; mostly screams, along with the background hum of all life in the galaxy. Sometimes it shocked her, the breadth of Raven's perception. But it always seemed so surface-level. When she focused on her own abilities, she could feel individual thoughts, spilling out like actual words into the darkness. Bao-Dur: " _It's her call now. She has to make this choice. I'm not responsible."_

She gave him what he needed. A nod. He left the room.

She watched Malachor die. Continent-sized fissures erupted on its surface, sending out a million waves of light as almost all its life died in an instant. Explosions flared in its skies as ships, Mandalorian and Republic, came crashing down, or shattered from the sudden gravitational collapse. At first, their deaths shone brighter than the fireballs their ships became, but as Kayrn watched, the colors faded away. She felt nothing as the planet caved in on itself, its core splitting apart and spraying white-hot metal into space. As great green electrical arcs crawled out of the ruined planet's surface, she realized that the Force was leaving her. She felt nothing but relief, even as a panic scratched at the back of her mind, a familiar presence trying to reach for her, calling her name as the stars fell silent.

And then she was free.

* * *

Kayrn sat at the edge of her bed, staring into nothing, feeling nothing, hearing nothing, for the first time that she could remember. The Force was gone for good, and all she could perceive were the real sounds around her, the quiet drone of the ship's functionings. Her lightsaber lay on her lap, useless now. She'd relied on the Force to guide her body, to flow through her during a fight and save her. There would be none of that, now. She imagined holding a blaster, firing it at targets on the range like any other Republic soldier. She felt like a child. How could she rely on such a thing for so long? How did she take it for granted?

The door to her quarters slid open. She didn't realize it was Raven until she looked up and saw her face. Gone for good, then. If she couldn't sense Raven's power, she couldn't sense anything.

"Kayrn," she said quietly. "I've been down to the surface."

Kayrn said nothing.

"There's something else down there. It survived the Mass Shadow Generator."

Raven waited for a response, but what was there to say? What did it matter? The war was over. Raven had already executed Mandalore. It was time to go back and face judgement for what they'd done. To find justice.

"I think you should see it."

"We need to go back to Coruscant," Kayrn said finally. "Whatever's left of Malachor, it can wait until we've talked to the Council. They summoned all Jedi who fought in the war. We should be the first to go."

"What?!" Raven's words came out in a spit of rage. "Karyn, what are you talking about? We know what they'll say. We've fallen to the dark side because we dared to fight the people who were slaughtering millions. We're disobeying the Jedi code because we dared to be together and accomplish incredible things. We don't owe the Council anything!"

Karyn looked up at her, her face twisted into a snarl. She wondered what it had been that had made her love her. Perhaps it had been some intoxication through the Force, or just one of the links she formed so easily, that had drawn them together. Now she seemed so young, and brash, and angry. Without her aura, she was so much smaller.

"If you believe that, then come back with me," Kayrn offered. "Tell them. Show the whole world why you did what you did. We can offer our defense. Make our case."

"They don't deserve that." Raven's face darkened. "We should be the ones in control, not them. Alek and I have already decided our course of action. The fleet is with us. The Republic needs to change or they will not survive what is coming."

"What's coming?"

"If you'd come down to Malachor—"

"I'm not stepping foot on that planet."

Raven's blue eyes flashed yellow. "You want to be a pawn of the Jedi Council? Fine." She thrust up her hand, and Kayrn flew into the air, scrambling madly for her saber. "I'll get you a one-way ticket to Coruscant. The next time you see this fleet, it will be bombing those cities to ash."

"Raven, what are you doing?!" Kayrn cried as Raven's power pulled her out the door.

"You can't even resist. Pathetic."

Raven dragged her down the hallway, through half the ship, until they reached the escape pods. With a wave of her hand, she smashed Kayrn into one, her head slamming into the durasteel ceiling. As she raised her head up from the floor, her blurry vision revealed Raven's dark form sealing the pod, then moving out of sight. She raised up to her feet and drew her saber, igniting the orange blade, intending to cut her way out—

And then she fell backwards as the pod jettisoned, hurtling her out into space. She heard its one-shot hyperdrive ticking as it warmed up. She stood up and turned off her saber, not quite for the last time.

She watched the silent stars shoot by as she fell into exile.


End file.
